


the keeping of closed doors

by girlmarvel



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Quest of Erebor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 20:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13465860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlmarvel/pseuds/girlmarvel
Summary: There may be a dragon waiting for them in Erebor but Fili and Kili must first survive Mirkwood's cells and the silence they find there.





	the keeping of closed doors

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for GatheringFiki's WinterFre 2018  
> prompt 123: trapped in Mirkwood

Arrows break through the trees and embed themselves in the vulnerable eyes and bellies of the eight-legged beasts they are failing to fight off just when Kili’s sure they’ll end this quest in the belly of a giant spider instead of the famed halls of Erebor.

Woodelves follow the arrows, swiftly dispatching the creatures and Kili uses the commotion to make a grab for Fili where he’s on the ground nearby, trying to pull webs from his trapped ankles. Kili barely gets his fingers on Fili’s arm before elvish hands are hauling him up and away, pushing him towards where they’re corralling the rest of the company. Fili is pushed towards them not long after, tripping as he glowers at one of their elvish ‘rescuers.’ Kili catches and steadies him, using the movement to check Fili over for wounds and he notices Fili’s doing the same for him.

“Okay?” Kili asks quietly, eyes narrowing when his hand on Fili’s thigh causes his brother to wince.

“Spider bite,” Fili whispers back, eyeing their guards. “Not bad.”

Kili wants to check himself but they’re being roped together and hauled off by the elves, who clearly have little patience for Thorin’s raised voice.

 

 

 

The entire company looks worse for wear, hair choked with webbing and scowling at every elf, but there’s a pinch to Fili’s brow that makes nerves bubble low in Kili’s gut and his coloring is off, paler than Kili would like and that can’t be attributed to the elvish hands dragging them deeper into Mirkwood. They are marched single-file first through the forest and then down, down into the halls of Thranduil, where they find no hospitality but a prison. Vast tunnels all lined with cells and with each hall they pass a different pair broken off from the main line.

Fili and Kili are the last of the line of dwarves and get to witness every breaking of the company. Bombur and Bifur had went off down their hall with their guards silently but Dwalin had not, though Balin did his very best to shush his brother.

Kili spends a brief moment thankful that at least the elves are letting them have company in their cells and that Fili will be his before he’s being pushed into a cell and Fili doesn’t follow. They lock eyes and Fili’s widen when he realizes they’re being separated. Fili shouts Kili’s name and struggles against the guard’s grip before he’s dragged further out of sight.

Kili dashes to catch the barred door before it’s slammed closed, but the lock clicks into place with finality.

“Wait! Put him in with me, please!” he begs the elf looking down at him, whose slim fingers are still on the door. The elf regards him and a shimmer of hope flares in Kili before the guard turns and walks away.

“Wait, no! Fili!” he shouts.

 

 

 

They aren’t within eyesight but they can hear each other and that is enough for a time. Their cells occupy opposite sides of the walkway and they think a few cells lie in between from what they can guess, because of course they wouldn’t be allowed the comfort of being able to touch each other, stretched fingers navigating around bars. They appear to be alone in this stretch of dank dungeon, unable to hear any of the rest of the party no matter how loudly they shout for them.

They try for silence at first, worried their captors might be listening for escape plans or more information about the company but the quiet grates on them. If they could see each other maybe it would be bearable, but not with how it is, especially when the hours and eventually days stack up.

They give up on secrecy and begin talking to each other again, quieting only when the guards pass twice a day, they reckon at least from the amount of food brought to them. Kili keeps up his chatter but his laughter is strained now with a force cheer, for Fili’s or even his own benefit if he’ll admit it, so that Fili will know Kili’s okay and they can pretend everything is going to turn out well. Neither wants to admit just yet they could be spending the rest of their lives trapped in these cells, apart and afraid.

Fili’s steady voice, some distance off to his right, helps to calm Kili and keep him away from the edge of panic he sometimes finds himself nearing. He wants to tear at the walls around him and shout until the damned guards do something, anything really if it means the bars of his cell will open, even if it’s cuffing him round the head. He'd take any measure of violence for a chance at glimpsing his brother's face.

 

 

 

On the fourth or even fifth day, they can’t be sure their timing is correct, Fili’s voice falters. There’s a slur there, right at the end, when he’s saying Kili’s name. The cadence just off enough that it would be unnoticeable to any but Kili.

“Fili?” Kili calls, huddling up towards the bars closest to Fili’s own. “Are you well?”

“I’m trapped in an elvish dungeon,” Fili replies flatly. “So I would wager not.”

“You know what I mean,” Kili says, wishing he could see Fili’s face, could judge the truth of his words by the tilt of Fili’s mouth or the set of his shoulders. “Are you still hurt?”

“I -,” Fili pauses, “I feel a bit nauseous. It’s nothing really.”

“But the spiders? What if your wound is infected?” Kili asks, wondering if Fili will pick up the nerves he can hear in his own voice.

“The bites don’t look infected,” Fili replies.

“Bites?” Kili nearly shouts and winces at his volume. “You mean more than one?”

Fili’s answering yes is too quiet for Kili’s liking.

“How many bites do you have, Fee?”

“Three.”

“You need to see a healer! We’ve got to tell the guards,” Kili’s really shouting now.

“It’s fine, Kili. I promise.” Fili says. “The elves don’t care about us.”

That doesn’t satisfy Kili but then Fili is telling Kili he’s tired and wants to rest and Kili won’t deny Fili that, especially if he’s falling ill.

 

 

 

As the hours pass between them, Fili’s voice fades. His answers to Kili’s inquiries grow quieter and more than once Kili has to say Fili’s name several times before Fili realizes Kili had been talking to him.

That night Kili wakes to the sound of wretching. He fights back tears as he calls Fili’s name over and over again until the gagging sounds stop.

His last _Fili_ ends on a choked off sob.

Fili’s answering “S’fine, Kee.” is anything but.

Kili falls into a fitful sleep pressed against the bars of his cell, as close to Fili as he can get.

The sound of a cell being opened startles him awake. He can hear elvish words, swift and low, a pair of guards talking to each other.

“Hello?” he calls, up instantly and grabbing at his bars. “Fili?”

Fili doesn’t answer but one of their jailers appears at his cell and he cranes his neck up to look at him. The dark-haired elf eyes him and Kili thinks there’s a question in his face but before Kili can say anything more the elf turns and heads back in the direction of Fili’s cell.

“Hey!” Kili shouts, “What’s going on? Fili?”

There’s only silence.

 

 

 

Panic closes in on Kili after two patrols of silent guards pass him and there’s no answer from Fili.

Kili spends the next few hour screaming himself hoarse. Screaming for Fili to answer him, for the guards to tell him what’s going on, to know if his brother’s been taken somewhere or if he’s laying cold and breathless on the floor in this miserable place. He throws himself against the bars until his shoulders and hands are a mess of bruises.

 

 

 

Dwarves don’t beg, especially not those of Durin’s Line, but Thorin isn’t here, no one is. And Kili wants his brother. He doesn’t care what his forefathers would have to say about dwarven pride, he cares only for Fili, even if it’s just a word of him.

  
It isn’t much of a plan, but it’s the only thing he can do. Kili waits by the bars of his cell patiently for the next patrol of the guards. His timing will have to be impeccable to get them to stop. Pleas have had no effect on them, no matter how loudly or pathetically uttered. Their footsteps never change pace down the hall. A dozen times they’ve passed since Fili’s voice went silent and they’ve shown no indication of noticing, let alone caring about Kili’s pain.

  
He waits, body and mind still, timing the sound of the guards footsteps until the perfect moment. He shoots his hand out, grabbing a hold of an arm just as it passes. If he’s surprised them, their faces don’t show it. The one he’s holding, he’s caught a hold of the fairer of the two, looks down at Kili’s dirty hand and then the other guard is snapping Kili’s wrist back, the pain instant and sharp, but worth it as he keeps his hold on the fabric of the elf’s sleeve. The guards have stopped and they stare down at him, while the darker of the two says something to his partner.

“Please,” Kili gets out through gritted teeth. “Just tell me if my brother lives?”

Kili releases his grip on the elf’s sleeve and repeats himself. His “please” a quiet, desperate thing.

The guards exchange looks and the one holding his wrist lets it drop. Kili restrains the urge to cradle it to his chest, knowing the strength of those long fingers have already left bruises on his skin.

“Brother?” the one Kili had grabbed asks, voice giving a strange lilt to the word.

“Yes, my brother! He was ill. Is he alright?”

“He lives,” the darker of the two answers and Kili feels himself smiling. It’s small, but still the first smile since they were dragged underground.

“He doesn’t answer me.”

“He’s not here,” says one, and they share a look between them that gives Kili no comfort as he looks up at their sharp faces.

“Where is he?” Kili asks.

“Healer’s,” the other answers sharply and then the both of them are walking away, back down the direction they came from.

Kili sighs to himself. He’s alone but Fili’s alive and that’s a price he’s willing to pay. “Thank you,” he shouts after them. “Thank you!”

 

 

 

Kili wakes next to elvish words, his head snapping up. The two elves are back and looking at him where he’d huddled up in the back of his cell.  
“Get up,” the dark-haired one tells him and he scrabbles to his feet as the other opens his cell door.

“What’s - ” Kili stammers as the elf motions for him to come out. He steps out of the cell, uncertain. “Where are you taking me?”

“To your brother.”

 

 

 

They blindfold him, lead him down what feels like an endless warren of tunnels, one hand each on his shoulders as a guide. Kili wants to laugh and tell them the blindfold really isn’t necessary, no amount of stone sense would have had helped him navigate this maze. Couldn’t even count his steps as he nearly jogged to match pace with their lengthy strides. Besides, he wouldn’t be attempting any escapes without Fili.

Fili looks small in the bed, when they finally stop and pull the blindfold off of him. Kili’s moving across the room in an instance, scrabbling up onto the mattress beside Fili. He doesn’t care if he looks undignified or desperate as he pulls Fili’s hand into his own.

“Is he -,” Kili begins, but his voice falters. “Will he -”

“He will live,” a new elf over in the corner of the room says and Kili feels like he can breathe for the first time in days. “Let him sleep though.”

His two guards move towards the door and Kili catches their eyes.

“Thank you,” he says quietly. The fair one dips his head in a nod and Kili swears the dark-haired ones’ lips curl up in small smile before they turn and leave the room.

Kili gaze drops back to Fili, nothing the bandages over his right shoulder. Kili watches the rise and fall of Fili’s chest as he strokes a thumb over the back of Fili’s hand. KIli silently thanks Mahal (and sympathetic guards) for being allowed by Fili’s side.

 

 

 

There are no elves, guards or healers, in the room when Fili wakes, eyes blinking slowly and brow furrowing when he catches sight of Kili. Not able to hold himself back, Kili kisses him then, tears falling from his eyes as he presses his lips gently to Fili’s.

Kili feels Fili’s fingers reach up into his hair. “S’nice dream,” Fili mumbles against his lips. Kili grins and pulls back.

“Not a dream, Fee,” he tells his brother. Fili’s fingers tighten in his hair and Kili wishes he’d never let go.

 

 

 

Kili doesn’t get to spend too much time the little bright room. Once Fili’s declared out of danger by his elvish nurse, it’s back to the dungeons for the two of them.

This time though their jailers put them in the same cell, blessedly together.

“Home, sweet home,” Kili chuckles as the door closes them into Kili’s cell.

“At least I can use you for a pillow now,” Fili says, sitting down in a corner.

“I can think of other ways you can use me,” Kili throws him a wink and Fili laughs. “We’ll get out of here.” Kili continues. “I’ve got a good feeling about it.”

“You’re awfully optimistic for a fellow in a dungeon cell.”

Kili sits down next to him, reaching for Fili’s hand. “We’ve made it this far. What else could go wrong?”


End file.
